Here are a couple of, well, let’s just call them very intriguing questions asked of me by a Men’s Rights Redditor. Since I can’t respond to them on the Men’s Rights subreddit — I’m banned — I thought I’d respond here:
Mr. Levelate, allow me to answer your serious questions with some equally serious questions of my own:
I’ve wondered for a long time how people like you react to the men’s rights mantra of ‘all women are wombats’, when you see a woman who isn’t a wombat, how do you explain this?
Also, many MRAs advocate turning all squirrels into bologna, what makes you think squirrel bologna would taste better than regular bologna, and what would the world do with all those extra uneaten nuts, were it ever to come to that?
Here’s the thing, Mr. Levelate: those things you think feminists believe? FEMINISTS DON’T ACTUALLY BELIEVE THEM.
That “all men are rapists” quote from Marilyn French you guys like to pass around? That was from a character in a novel.
The number of radical feminists who seriously want to get rid of men, or a significant number of them, you could probably count on your fingers. I’m not sure how many MRAs want to make squirrel bologna, but the numbers are probably similar. And, fyi, there are actually more than a few MRAs who fantasize about breeding certain types of women out of existence, like this dude on The Spearhead, and a small army of MRAs and MGTOWers who pine for the imaginary future where babies are gestated in artificial wombs and women are all replaced by sexy sexbots.
Listening to MRAs talking about feminism is a bit like sitting in on a book club in which no one has read the book.
@Tulgey: I must’ve missed that thread. Please tell me “slobbering crotch maws” isn’t referring to a vagina. I think I hurt myself laughing.
Actually, I think men can help to stop rape. Not only can we do so by, you know, not raping, but also by making it clear to our fellow men that rape isn’t cool–that anything less than enthusiastic consent is unacceptable.
Also rape is something that men perpetrate in much larger numbers than women. Are all men rapists? Of course not. But most rapists are certainly men. I think, at the very least, we should be part of the solution not the problem.
People who keep (deliberately?) misinterpreting the Shrodinger’s Rapist post should be forced to read the entire ridiculously long comments thread in the hopes that the point might eventually penetrate their harder-than-titanium skulls.
ARKS, no .
I was going to say… even the “all men are rapists” thing meant POTENTIAL rapist, and the reason it was being discussed had to do with mobility for women in society. To be a certain class of being that has to always feel a tad unsafe (consciously or unconsciously) is the topic.
So this actually speaks quite well to your claims that some in society are being erased.
Men get raped, but do they feel unsafe around women? Are they scared of women, do they have to watch their backs? There is a different level of shaping here going on. The reality of rape can SHAPE a woman, and it does very little to shape a man.
Now we get to prison. Human rights in prison need reforming.
The times I have heard people make callous remarks about what is going to happen to someone in prison is when they have made people suffer without regard to empathy, and feeling they would never have to go through what they put others through. That’s a bit different than just making a random rape joke, or wishing someone harm, “oh well you sell dope, what do you expect to happen” I have NEVER heard that, but for women getting raped or sexually assaulted, well she consented by BEING THERE (see Joe Francis case).
Arks show me one statement where someone has wished prison rape on someone for selling pot? Compare with magpie’s statement about her own family saying if a woman walks into a dark alley that should be her punishment.
See, again MOBILITY. These things might happen to men, it does not impede their mobility or make impressions on who they are as a person. Even if some man out there has feared for his life around a woman, it’s unlikely that man would feel sketchy around other women in a general sense.
Also, there is a certain rape culture discussion applicable to war torn areas that most of us should be familiar with. Now go and apply that rape/fear-all-men quote to that situation.
At the end of the day, every woman could consider every man a potential rapist, and what would the fall out of that be? Awkward moments? And what would the benefits be?
I’m sorry but these hysterics are not warranted, and the priorities are again as backwards as a sociopath can flip them. It’s scary, actually.
It means pretty much what you think. Arks has a way with words that my pretentious poet’s heart truly envies. I hope there’s a “best of Arks” floating around somewhere.
just to clarify… I am not talking about an individual man saying that if a man got raped it would not affect him. From context that should be clear that we’re talking about groups and mobility. However, just let me stress that I’m not saying rape does not effect people. I have met three men in my lifetime that were raped by women, and not one of them was afraid of women, had their mobility impeded, or watched their back OR WERE BLAMED.
There’s a difference between caution and paranoia. The Schrodinger’s Rapist article is online, anyone can read it so don’t act like I haven’t. The woman who wrote that article is completely out of her mind and she spells it out pretty clearly that she thinks rape = something a man does to a woman.
Arks must think “Only you can prevent forest fires” actually means “Only Arks can prevent forest fires.” Misarsonry?
There was a case not long ago in Texas where an 11 year old (or so) girl was assaulted by about twenty men and boys in a trailer. The New York Times article about the case quoted neighbors attributing the event to the way the girl was dressed, and their worries about what was going to happen to the lives of the perpetrators.
No rape culture there, no sirree bob! Just male disposability as far as the eye can see.
You know, it would help if you would act like you’ve actually read it. Your constant and deliberate misrepresentation of its message aren’t doing you any favors here.
Arks, what the hell are you on about?
A woman who has been stalked and harassed by men before writes a post about how it is impossible for women to know men’s intentions just by looking = clearly insane woman who hates men and thinks they are all rapists.
OF COURSE.
Arks: Erm… Rape is nearly always something a man does to a woman. I don’t know the percentages (and those have some problems), but I’m pretty sure that they show that most rapes are committed by men. Show me actual numbers (backed up by actual, peer reviewed studies) that say otherwise and I’ll happily retract, of course.
@captainbathrobe:
No shit men can help stop rape, but that’s not the meaning of the phrase or the intentions of the movements that pop up around it. These snarky articles and “dude tips” telling men they can stop rape by not raping are built around the assumption that men are responsible for all rape.
“Also rape is something that men perpetrate in much larger numbers than women. Are all men rapists? Of course not. But most rapists are certainly men. I think, at the very least, we should be part of the solution not the problem.”
It’s a 60/40 split. Men should be trying to solve the problem but women need to do their part as well instead of pretending to be victims who aren’t accountable for anything.
Oh boy! Captain Misogyny’s here to tell us lady folk how we’ve been fucking it up!
@Arks,
Last I checked, it was feminists who were doing much of the work to stop rape. Also, I’m highly suspicious of your 60-40 figure. Got a source other than your own ass?
“Completely out of her mind,” except she spends a lot of time showing how environmental and social cues raise or lower your perceived threat as a stranger with no prior history. What a nut she is!
And though I know this is going to go over your head, Arks, Schrodinger’s Rapist was never about making women paranoid. It was about informing men about the type of fear that women, by virtue of being women in a rape culture, live with, and telling those men how not to act like entitled, creepy assholes who think women owe them a conversation at any location and any hour. Clearly, as you’re demonstrating, it has not been entirely successful.
@Kathleen:
http://www.cdc.gov/ViolencePrevention/pdf/NISVS_Report2010-a.pdf
Women raped in the last year: 1.1%
Men “made to penetrate” (since female-on-male rape is not legally recognized, it gets this category) in the last year: 1.1%
80% of men report a female rapist, which would mean there’s something like a 60/40 split.
CFN
So far we have the following claims from Arks about the Schrödinger’s Rapist article:
1. It violates the presumption of innocence. [doesn’t apply here]
2. It’s teaching women to be paranoid. [It’s aimed at men]
3. It assumes only men rape. [It explicitly lays out that many women are raped, mostly by men, and does not pretend to discuss All Rape Ever]
4. Its author is paranoid and completely out of her mind. [Discusses common sense social cues indicating a stranger’s level of threat, which can be low but never 0% and raised based on circumstance and personal actions]
5. It is called Schrödinger’s Rapist. [check]
6. It is publicly available online. [yes]
Hang in there, Arks! Two out of six is still something.
It’s something, all right.
So, women are reluctant to trust men out of fear of being raped, and somehow their level of distrust offends Arks because statistics. Ok, got it. Seriously, Arks, what’s it to you?
@laura: “It was about informing men about the type of fear that women, by virtue of being women in a rape culture”
An unjustified fear based on an imaginary conception of society.
“and telling those men how not to act like entitled, creepy assholes who think women owe them a conversation at any location and any hour.”
All it tells men is that the reason women act so weird when you approach them isn’t because of something you did wrong, but because they believe in some kooky hollow earth lizard-people theory.
Well, clearly, women have to always be smiling and accommodating to men, and this “gift of fear” nonsense is making them think they can actually have opinions and preferences.